HP ProCurve 9304M Installation And Configuration Manual page 288

Installation and Basic Configuration Guide
HP's PVST support enables HP and Cisco devices that have separate spanning trees in each VLAN to
interoperate. The HP PVST support is automatically enabled when a port receives a PVST BPDU and does not
require configuration on the HP or Cisco device.
When PVST is enabled on an HP port, that port sends BPDUs in PVST format instead of HP's spanning tree
format.
PVST+
HP devices and Cisco devices support separate spanning trees on an individual port-based VLAN basis.
However, until the IEEE standard for multiple spanning trees is finalized, vendors are using different methods to
support multiple spanning trees within their own products. PVST+ is an extension to PVST that enables a Cisco
device to interoperate with other devices that are running a single spanning tree (IEEE 802.1Q) while still running
a separate spanning tree in each VLAN.
PVST+ uses 802.1Q single STP BPDUs on VLAN 1 and PVST BPDUs (which have a proprietary format) for other
VLANs. In this case, the Cisco device uses devices running 802.1Q as tunnels for PVST (non-802.1Q) traffic.
The 802.1Q single STP BPDUs are addressed to the well-known STP MAC address 01-80-C2-00-00-00. The
PVST BPDUs for the other VLANs are addressed to multicast address 01-00-0C-CC-CC-CD.
The PVST+ method can require manual configuration of STP parameters on the 802.1Q devices to ensure that
traffic for the PVST VLANs is not blocked. In addition, the opportunities to adjust STP parameters to load balance
traffic on a VLAN basis are limited when using PVST+.
Using HP Single STP with Cisco PVST+
Since HP's single STP feature complies with IEEE 802.1Q (the single STP specification), you also can use an HP
device running single STP to interoperate with a Cisco device running PVST+. When you enable single STP on
an HP device, the PVST compatibility feature is not enabled, even if a port receives a PVST BPDU.
Enabling PVST/PVST+ Statically
PVST/PVST+ support is automatically enabled on a port if the port receives a BPDU in PVST/PVST+ format.
However, you can statically enable PVST/PVST+ support on a port if desired. In this case, the support is enabled
immediately and support for HP tagged BPDUs is disabled at the same time. To enable the PVST/PVST+
support, use the following CLI method.
NOTE: When PVST/PVST+ support is enabled on a port, support for HP BPDUs is disabled.
USING THE CLI
To enable PVST/PVST+ support on a port, enter commands such as the following:
HP9300(config)# interface ethernet 1/1
HP9300(config-if-1/1)# pvst-mode
Syntax: [no] pvst-mode
NOTE: If you disable PVST/PVST+ support, the software still automatically enables PVST/PVST+ support if the
port receives an STP BPDU with PVST/PVST+ format.
USING THE WEB MANAGEMENT INTERFACE
You cannot enable PVST support using the Web management interface.
Displaying PVST Information
To display PVST information, use the following CLI method.
USING THE CLI
To display PVST information for ports on an HP device, enter the following command at any level of the CLI:
HP9300(config)# show span pvst-mode
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